One ice plant is being shut down in Estevan for the season, and another is scheduled to come offline at the end of the month.
Rod March, who is the facilities and parks manager for the City of Estevan, said the Power Dodge Curling Centre ice plant is slated to come offline on Wednesday. Their youth programs have wrapped up for the year, and they had someone renting the facility, but that ended on Tuesday.
“All of these things cost a lot of money, as you can well imagine,” said March. “The curling rink compressors and everything over there are around $6,000 a month.”
It would not be easy for the curling club to operate on natural ice for the rest of the season. They did that for nearly three weeks earlier this season, after the ice plant chiller broke down.
The curling club did a great job of keeping the ice going, he said.
“You’d need to leave the doors open and everything for natural ice in the nighttime, so it takes a lot more staffing and volunteers to do that as well,” said March.
The Power Dodge Arena’s ice plant is scheduled to come offline on March 1. Normally it would be removed in mid-April, after the Estevan Strippers Molson Spring Bust tournament wraps up, but that popular event has been cancelled for the second straight year.
As for Affinity Place, its ice will remain for a longer period of time. The Estevan Bruins season remains in limbo, and the city doesn’t want to remove the ice before a decision is made on the season.
“We don’t know the fate of the SJHL,” said March. “As you’re probably aware, they’re chatting back and forth to see if they could salvage any kind of a season whatsoever. So for right now we’re holding the ice into Affinity until probably March or April, depending on what happens with the SJHL.”
If the SJHL were to decide between now and the end of February that they would cancel the rest of the season, March said he would recommend to council to take the ice out at Affinity, due to the cost of operating the ice plant, but that would be a council decision.
“I know a lot of the SJHL cities are asking the league to please put a timeline on this. All I can says is we’re working with Jason (Tatarnic, the Bruins head coach and general manager) and the SJHL, but we’ve made a commitment until the end of February, and hopefully they’ll have a decision made.”
The city is working closely with user groups, he said.
Games for team sports have been suspended since the end of November, but youth sports teams can have practices with up to eight players at a time, with restrictions.
He also pointed out the city wants to have ice in place for residents for mental health reasons.
Other communities in the southeast have announced that they are turning off their ice plants and are operating with natural ice to give sports, user groups and individuals as much time as they can in those buildings. The ice will remain in place at those facilities as long as possible, and the frigid temperatures currently prevailing in the southeast is helping with those ice conditions.
It costs about $14,000 per month to run the Power Dodge Arena ice plant, while Affinity Place is around $12,000 because it’s newer and more efficient. The curling club plant costs less because it’s smaller.
The city has three outdoor rinks that are up and running. While the city can’t sanction any team sports due to the COVID-19 restrictions, March hears people are having a lot of fun on the rinks.
The Estevan Kinsmen and Kinette Clubs operate two rinks at the Kin Hillside Playpark, the Estevan Lions Club is responsible for the outdoor rink at the Rusty Duce Playpark and a group of local citizens tends to the rink in Westview.
“We are very fortunate for the volunteers and community groups that keep those rinks going. We give them a hand when we can and where we can, for sure. But for the most part, I stay out of the way and help them when they ask for help.”
